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Background: To explore the impact mechanism of physical exercise on the sense of meaning in life of college students, and analyze the chain mediating effect between self-concept and self-control. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted on 923 college students in China using the Physical Exercise Rating Scale (PARS-3), Life Meaning Scale, Self Concept Scale, and Self Control Scale. Results: (1) Physical exercise, self-concept, self-control and sense of meaning in life are significantly related to each other; (2) Self-concept and self-control play a chain mediating role between physical exercise and college students' sense of meaning in life, with an effect value of 0.042, accounting for 5.48% of the total effect. Conclusion: Physical exercise can directly enhance the sense of meaning in life of college students, and can also indirectly enhance it not only through the mediating effect of self-concept and self-control, but also through the chain mediating effect of the two. These results provide theoretical reference for college students to improve their sense of life meaning and mental health education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale disasters can disproportionately impact different population groups, causing prominent disparity and inequality, especially for the vulnerable and marginalized. Here, we investigate the resilience of human mobility under the disturbance of the unprecedented '720' Zhengzhou flood in China in 2021 using records of 1.32 billion mobile phone signaling generated by 4.35 million people. We find that although pluvial floods can trigger mobility reductions, the overall structural dynamics of mobility networks remain relatively stable. We also find that the low levels of mobility resilience in female, adolescent and older adult groups are mainly due to their insufficient capabilities to maintain business-as-usual travel frequency during the flood. Most importantly, we reveal three types of counter-intuitive, yet widely existing, resilience patterns of human mobility (namely, 'reverse bathtub', 'ever-increasing' and 'ever-decreasing' patterns), and demonstrate a universal mechanism of disaster-avoidance response by further corroborating that those abnormal resilience patterns are not associated with people's gender or age. In view of the common association between travel behaviors and travelers' socio-demographic characteristics, our findings provide a caveat for scholars when disclosing disparities in human travel behaviors during flood-induced emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first Sino-German workshop on "Deep-sea mining of massive sulfides: balancing impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem, technological challenges and law of the sea" took place from September 17 to September 23, 2023 in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. Four themes were covered by 20 impulse talks, (1) seabed resources and mineralization systems, marine geology and geochemistry, (2) microbiology and marine ecology, (3) deep-sea mining technology, mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, and (4) law of the sea and international law applicable to the marine environment in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, respectively. In round table discussions, the interdisciplinary understanding deepened regarding (i) the distribution of submarine massive sulfides (SMS), their formation mechanisms and the abundance of SMS resources, (ii) the biodiversity linked to SMS and hydrothermal vents and the environmental protection requirements, (iii) the challenges of mining technology and processing of SMS, as well as (iv) the legal framework, the regulatory challenges, the international environmental liability regime and due diligence obligations for commercial seabed mining. The participants covered all four themes and are affiliated with various universities, research institutions, and governmental geoscientific authorities from China (seven) and Germany (six). During the workshop, a number of recommendations to ISA were defined regarding environmental, methodological, technical, and legal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, Prunus mume is a famous flowering tree that has been cultivated for 3000 years. P. mume grows in tropical and subtropical regions, and most varieties lack cold resistance; thus, it is necessary to study the low-temperature response mechanism of P. mume to expand the scope of its cultivation. We used the integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of a cold-resistant variety of P. mume 'Meiren', to identify key genes and metabolites associated with low temperatures during flowering. The 'Meiren' cultivar responded in a timely manner to temperature by way of a low-temperature signal transduction pathway. After experiencing low temperatures, the petals fade and wilt, resulting in low ornamental value. At the same time, in the cold response pathway, the activities of related transcription factors up- or downregulate genes and metabolites related to low temperature-induced proteins, osmotic regulators, protective enzyme systems, and biosynthesis and metabolism of sugars and acids. Our findings promote research on the adaptation of P. mume to low temperatures during wintering and early flowering for domestication and breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The back analysis is an effective tool to determine the representative values of rock mass mechanical properties in rock engineering. The surrogate model is widely used in back analyses since analytical or numerical models are usually unavailable for practical engineering problems. This study proposes a novel back analysis framework by adopting the AdaBoost algorithm for deriving the surrogate model. Moreover, the simplicial homology global optimization (SHGO) algorithm, which is robust and applicable for a black-box global problem, is also integrated into the framework. To evaluate the performance, an experimental tunnel in Goupitan Hydropower Station, China, is introduced, and the representative rheological properties of the surrounding rock are obtained by applying the proposed framework. Then the computed displacements based on the acquired properties via both surrogate and numerical models are compared with field measurements. By taking triple-day data, the discrepancy between the calculated and field-measured displacements is less than 0.5 mm This validates the reliability of the obtained properties and the feasibility of the proposed framework. As an AdaBoost-based method, the proposed framework is sensitive to noise and outliers in the data, the elimination of which is recommended before application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock strength parameters are essential to understanding the rock failure mechanism and safely constructing rock excavation. It is a challenging problem for determining the rock failure criterion and its parameters due to the complexity of rock media. This study adopts an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm to determine the Hoek-Brown failure criterion, widely used in rock engineering practice, based on experimental data. The ABC-based approach is presented in detail and applied to a collection of experimental data collected from the literature. The ABC-based approach successfully determines the Hoek-Brown failure criterion, and the determined failure envelope is in excellent agreement with the measured curve. The maximum relative error obtained by ABC is only 2.15% and is far less than the 12.24% obtained by the traditional method. Then, the developed approach is applied to the Goupitan Hydropower Station, China, and determines the rheological parameters of soft rock based on the Burgers model. The deformation of an experiment located in the Goupitan Hydropower Station is evaluated based on obtained parameters by the developed approach. The predicted deformation matches the monitored displacement in the field. The obtained parameters of the failure criterion characterize the mechanical behavior of rock mass well. Thus, the method used provides a reliable and robust approach to determining the mechanical parameters of the failure criterion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of rapid urbanization, the phenomenon of spatial fragmentation in Chinese inland central cities is significant. The scientific measurement and evaluation of urban spatial fragmentation are conducive to its transformation, advancement, and sustainable development. Based on the fractal dimension index and Shannon index, this study measures urban spatial fragmentation in terms of form and function, respectively. In addition, multi-scale geographic weighted regression (MGWR) is used to study the influencing factors of spatial fragmentation. The conclusions are as follows: ① the measurement results of spatial form fragmentation and functional fragmentation of urban built-up areas are consistent. The fragmentation degree of the new urban area (new urban district and high-tech district) is higher than that of the old urban areas, and the urban space fragmentation degree around railways and rivers is high. The urban space fragmentation degree of coal resource concentrated distribution areas in the north is lower. The cold spot area of the fragmentation phenomenon appears in the old urban area, and the hot spot area is in the new urban area and along the railway. ② The positive influencing factors of urban spatial fragmentation in Pingdingshan city are the NDVI and the distance from CBD. The negative influencing factor is the number of bus stops per unit area. The DEM and population density have no significant impact on urban fragmentation in Pingdingshan city. ③ Among the variables with significance, its influence has a certain spatial heterogeneity. The spatial scale from small to large is the number of bus stops per unit area, NDVI, and the distance from CBD. The degree of urban fragmentation is very sensitive to the number of bus stops per unit area and the impact scale is quite small. The spatial impacts of the NDVI and the distance from CBD are relatively stable. This study provides a reference and basis for the spatial development of built-up areas of inland central cities and promotes the transformation, advancement, and sustainable development of inland central cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osmanthus fragrans is an aromatic plant which is widely used in landscaping and garden greening in China. However, the process of flower opening is significantly affected by ambient temperature changes. Cell expansion in petals is the primary factor responsible for flower opening. Xyloglucan endoglycolase/hydrolase (XTH) is a cell-wall-loosening protein involved in cell expansion or cell-wall weakening. Through whole-genome analysis, 38 OfXTH genes were identified in O. fragrans which belong to the four main phylogenetic groups. The gene structure, chromosomal location, synteny relationship, and cis-acting elements prediction and expression patterns were analyzed on a genome-wide scale. The expression patterns showed that most OfXTHs were closely associated with the flower-opening period of O. fragrans. At the early flower-opening stage (S1 and S2), transcriptome and qRT-PCR analysis revealed the expression of OfXTH24, 27, 32, 35, and 36 significantly increased under low ambient temperature (19 °C). It is speculated that the five genes might be involved in the regulation of flower opening by responding to ambient temperature changes. Our results provide solid foundation for the functional analysis of OfXTH genes and help to explore the mechanism of flower opening responding to ambient temperature in O. fragrans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) is the essential condition for gas hydrate accumulation, which is controlled by three main factors: gas component, geothermal gradient and permafrost thickness. Based on the gas component of hydrate samples from drilling in Muri coalfield, the gas hydrate phase equilibrium curve was calculated using Sloan's natural gas hydrate phase equilibrium procedure (CSMHYD) program. Through temperature data processing of coalfield boreholes, some important data such as thickness of permafrost and geothermal gradient were obtained. The GHSZ parameters of a single borehole were calculated by programming based on the above basic data. The average thickness of GHSZ of 85 boreholes in Muri coalfield amounted to approximately 1000 m, indicating very broad space for gas hydrate occurrence. The isogram of GHSZ bottom depth drawn from single borehole data in Muri coalfield demonstrated the regional distribution characteristics of GHSZ, and identified three favourable areas of gas hydrate occurrence where the bottom of GHSZ had a burial depth >1500 m – namely, the southern part of Juhugeng Mining Area, the middle part of Duosuogongma Mining Area and the eastern part of Xuehuoli Mining Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately determining geomechanical parameters and rock mass deformation are key components of slope stability assessment as well as structural design and safe construction. Numerical models are therefore commonly applied to these issues as a component of back analysis, which provides a practical tool for determining geomechanical parameters in rock engineering. Although once quantified, rock mass deformation can also be calculated using an appropriate numerical model, the traditional approaches tend to be time-consuming and cannot be used to accurately determine deformation uncertainty in practical rock engineering. A relevance vector machine (RVM) was adopted in this study to build the complex mapping relationship between geomechanical parameters and slope deformation, while an artificial bee colony (ABC) was also utilized to search for optimal parameters based on the RVM model and displacement monitored in the field. On this basis, both deformation and associated uncertainty can be predicted using this model via the input of determined geomechanical parameters. The method advocated in this paper was then applied to a rock slope at the Longtan hydropower station, China; results demonstrate that the RVM model accurately describes the relationship between geomechanical parameters and displacement increments and can thus be used to predict both deformation and associated uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans Lour.) is one of the top ten traditional ornamental flowers in China. The flowering time of once-flowering cultivars in O. fragrans is greatly affected by the relatively low temperature, but there are few reports on its molecular mechanism to date. A hypothesis had been raised that genes related with flower opening might be up-regulated in response to relatively low temperature in O. fragrans. Thus, our work was aimed to explore the underlying molecular mechanism of flower opening regulated by relatively low temperature in O. fragrans. Results: The cell size of adaxial and abaxial petal epidermal cells and ultrastructural morphology of petal cells at different developmental stages were observed. The cell size of adaxial and abaxial petal epidermal cells increased gradually with the process of flower opening. Then the transcriptomic sequencing was employed to analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under different number of days' treatments with relatively low temperatures (19 °C) or 23 °C. Analysis of DEGs in Gene Ontology analysis showed that "metabolic process", "cellular process", "binding", "catalytic activity", "cell", "cell part", "membrane", "membrane part", "single-organism process", and "organelle" were highly enriched. In KEGG analysis, "metabolic pathways", "biosynthesis of secondary metabolites", "plant-pathogen interaction", "starch and sucrose metabolism", and "plant hormone signal transduction" were the top five pathways containing the greatest number of DEGs. The DEGs involved in cell wall metabolism, phytohormone signal transduction pathways, and eight kinds of transcription factors were analyzed in depth. Conclusions: Several unigenes involved in cell wall metabolism, phytohormone signal transduction pathway, and transcription factors with highly variable expression levels between different temperature treatments may be involved in petal cell expansion during flower opening process in response to the relatively low temperature. These results could improve our understanding of the molecular mechanism of relatively-low-temperature-regulated flower opening of O. fragrans, provide practical information for the prediction and regulation of flowering time in O. fragrans, and ultimately pave the way for genetic modification in O. fragrans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource‐based cities (RBCs) whose economies depend primarily on exploiting and processing natural resources usually have rigid, singular, and low‐end industrial structures, which often cripples their ability to cope with external disturbances such as international resource price fluctuations and economic downturns. This paper quantitatively analyzes the economic resilience of RBCs in China in terms of resistance and recoverability during the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis. Furthermore, it identifies the main factors affecting resilience. There are four main findings: First, RBCs were quickly and negatively impacted by the Asian financial crisis, which suggests that economic resistance was generally low during this period. In the recovery period, while the rate of recovery was slow at the beginning, economic recoverability improved after 2002. Economic resistance and recoverability were found to have a strong negative correlation. Second, at the beginning of the global financial crisis, the economic resistance of RBCs was generally high. However, after 2012, the number of cities that were severely affected by the economic crisis increased rapidly. Third, economic resistance varied across different types of RBCs. Coal‐based and forestry‐based cities had lower economic resistance, while oil & gas‐based cities were more resistant. RBCs in the Eastern region generally had low economic resistance, while the economic resilience of recessionary cities was also low. Finally, while factors affecting the economic resilience varied across the two economic cycles, we found that economic development, labor conditions and, most of all, the industrial structure had a statistically significant negative effect on economic resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) originates from placental tissue and exhibits the potential for invasion and metastasis. Gene alterations in GTN have not been extensively studied because of a lack of qualified tumor specimens after chemotherapy. GTN has a rapid growth rate and is highly metastatic, which makes circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) sequencing a promising modality for gene profiling. Accordingly, in this study, we performed targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) of 559 tumor-associated genes using circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) collected prior to chemotherapy from 11 patients with GTN. All sequenced genes were associated with oncogenesis, progression, and targeted therapy. The average cfDNA level was 0.43 ± 0.22 ng/μL. Significant correlations were found between cfDNA concentration and maximum lesion diameter (r = 0.625, p = 0.040) and time for human chorionic gonadotropin beta subunit (β-HCG) recovering to normal level (r = 0.609, p = 0.047). There were no significant correlations between cfDNA concentrations and β-HCG expression level or lung metastasis. ctDNA mutations were detected in all patients, and 73 mutant genes were detected in 11 patients. BMPR1A (27.3%), LRP1B (27.3%), ERCC4 (18.2%), FGF14 (18.2%), HSP90AA1 (18.2%), KAT6A (18.2%), KMT2D (18.2%), MAP3K1 (18.2%), RANBP2 (18.2%), and ZNF217 (18.2%) mutations were detected as overlapping mutations. The mRNA and protein levels of bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 1A were significantly downregulated in human JAR and JEG-3 choriocarcinoma cells (p < 0.0001), whereas mRNA and protein levels of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 1 were upregulated in these two cell lines (p = 0.0128 , p = 0.0012 , respectively). These genes may play important roles in GTN initiation and progression and may be candidate targets for GTN treatment. These findings suggested that cfDNA levels could provide potential assessment value in disease severity of GTN and that ctDNA sequencing was a promising approach for identifying gene mutations in GTN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xie, M.; Yao, S.; Li, W.; Zhao, H., and Gao, Z., 2015. Investigation of the movement characteristics of West Guangdong longshore ocean current system, China. The West Guangdong Ocean Current (WG current) is a special ocean current flowing along the West Guangdong coastline, China. It has significant impact on the nearshore area, and it will make the nearshore current movement complex after superposing on the tidal currents. A comprehensive investigation of the WG current is mandatory especially to the construction of nearshore harbors. However, at present, the nature of WG current is still not well clarified. Based on a series of filed survey datasets carried out in different representative seasons, the movement characteristics of the WG current are analyzed by using a residual flow extracting method. The results indicate that the WG current direction points to southwest in the entire year, which does not accord with the dominant monsoon direction especially in summer, and the current speed shows significant seasonal variation. The current speed increases at the first 10 km away from shoreline, and then becomes approximately uniform. Besides, the current speed is larger in summer than that in winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequent outbreaks of water eutrophication in Gehu Lake are regarded as one of the most troublesome environmental issues in Southeast China. Based on the water's potential capacity to accept pollutant loads, a catchment-scale environmental management system was established to ensure inflows of clean water into Taihu Lake. Considering the complexity of the hydrological regimes operating within the river-network plain, the capacities of the water environment for loads of COD and nutrients were estimated using the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program, Version 7.3 ( WASP 7.3) model. The calibration and the verification of this model were based on water quality measurements during the period 2009-2010. The variables of water quality that were examined are COD, NH4- N, TN and TP. The simulated distributions of the COD, NH4- N, TN and TP in the water column agree with the observations, but it indicates that more measurements are needed to verify the predictability of the simulations. The simulation results show that the average relative error is small, and the change trend of each indicator is consistent. The results have shown that the WASP model can be used to evaluate the future water quality changes in case that the pollution continues with the same rate. The work presented in this paper is expected to be a theoretical basis in exploring the degradation mechanism for self-purification capacity of water bodies and in designing and constructing of Gehu Lake ecosystem restoration goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osmanthus fragrans is a well-known native plant in China, and carotenoids are the main group of pigments in the petals. Abscisic acid (ABA) is one of the products of the metabolic pathway of carotenoids. Application of ABA could affect pigmentation of flower petals by changing the carotenoid content. However, little is known about the effects of ABA treatment on carotenoid accumulation in O. fragrans. In this study, different concentrations of ABA (0, 150 and 200 mg/L) were spread on the petals of O. fragrans 'Yanhonggui'. The petal color of 'Yanhonggui' receiving every ABA treatment was deeper than that of the control. The content of total carotenoids in the petals significantly increased with 200 mg/L ABA treatment. In the petals, α-carotene and β-carotene were the predominant carotenoids. The expression of several genes involved in the metabolism of carotenoids increased with 200 mg/L ABA treatment, including PSY1, PDS1, Z-ISO1, ZDS1, CRTISO, NCED3 and CCD4. However, the transcription levels of the latter two carotenoid degradation-related genes were much lower than of the five former carotenoid biosynthesis-related genes; the finding would explain the significant increase in total carotenoids in 'Yanhonggui' petals receiving the 200 mg/L ABA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Adopted SR to mine the fatigue mechanism based on test data. • Developed a fatigue equation to determine the fatigue life. • Demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of the developed fatigue equation. • Data-driven model for determination of fatigue equation. The fatigue life is one of the essential design indexes of the cement-stabilized cold recycled mixtures (CSCRM) in China. However, it is challenging to determine the fatigue equation of the CSCRM. In this study, the symbolic regression method is adopted to automatically identify a closed-form equation by the data-driven model to establish the fatigue prediction equation with a unified and concise mathematical structure. The developed method was illustrated and compared with the test results. The results show that the developed equation has a satisfactory prediction effect and provides a good and helpful tool to determine the fatigue life for CSCRMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop straw retention to field (CSRF) is a technology to impact the crop yield, soil properties and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and plays a critical role in sustainable agriculture system. Based on the literatures published, a meta-analysis was performed to evaluate actual impact of CSRF on crop yield, soil properties and GHG emission compared with straw no-retention (NSR). The results indicated that compared with NSR, yield of wheat, maize and rice under CSRF was significantly higher by 4.11, 7.22 and 7.62% respectively; CSRF enhanced the water use efficiency (WUE) and soil organic carbon (SOC) by 14.60 and 7.59%, respectively, reduced the bulk density of 0–20 cm soil layer by 3.06%., while it had no significant effect on the SOC of 20–40 cm; For GHG emissions, the soil emissions of CO2, N2O and CH4 were significantly improved under CSRF by 23.64, 12.21 and 27.34% respectively. Categorically, results on meta-analysis and regression indicated that large variation in crop yield, SOC content and bulk density in 0–20 cm soil layer, WUE and GHG emission under CSRF compared with NSR because of different straw retention mass, retention regions, and crop species. For example, the increased rate of large straw retention mass (LA) on crop yield was the highest. Adoption of CSRF under appropriate site-specific conditions can safeguard China's food security, alleviate soil-related constraints and slightly increase GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erratic and intensively erosive natural rainfall is becoming more frequent with the intensification of global climate warming, increasing uncertainty and unpredictable risks of the stability of contour ridge system. However, little attention has been paid to the in situ quantitative evaluation of contour ridge stability under natural rainfall. When water ponds in furrows, contour ridges tend to breach, inducing contour failure followed by ephemeral gully erosion, which greatly affects the stability of contour ridge system. To track sediment sources during ridge slope erosion, contour failure, and ephemeral gully erosion stages, ten rare earth element (REE) tracers were applied in three soil layers (total 0.3 m in depth) at four slope positions in-situ runoff plots under five rainfall levels. Runoff plots were conducted with contour ridgess for sweet potatoes (SP) and peanuts (PT). The stability of contour ridges was gradually weakened when erosion form shifted from ridge slope erosion to contour failure and then to ephemeral gully erosion. Ridge slope erosion controlled contour ridge stability, with contribution of 76.28–80.49 % to the total sediment yield. Sediment yield occupied 40.99 % of the total after contour failure appearing and 55.80 % after ephemeral gully formation. The lower-middle slope was the most fragile area for contour ridge system. Rainstorm (with precipitation 50–100 mm in 24 h) played a destructive role in weakening contour ridge stability, which generated the largest runoff (36.81–39.25 % to the total) and sediment yield (46.75–57.84 % to the total). Rainstorm made the greatest contribution to the occurrence of ridge slope erosion (51.64–59.99 %), contour failure (38.07–40.91 %), and ephemeral gully erosion (24.32–30.53 %). When using REE oxides to determine contour ridge stability, the tagging depth above 0.2 m and the uniform binding of oxides with < 0.05 mm particles should be considered. Thus, some modifications to lower the likelihood of ridge failures under rainstorm conditions may be effective to enhance the stability of contour ridge system. • The stability of contour ridges was seriously damaged after contour failure occurring. • Ridge slope erosion controlled the stability of contour ridge system. • Contour ridges were the least stable under rainstorm rainfall events. • The tagging depth of REE oxides should be above 0.2 m to track contour ridge stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Calli were induced from immature plumule and proliferated on 1/2 murashige and skoog (MS) medium containing 0.5 mg.L−1 6-Benzylaminopurine (6-BA) and 1 mg.L−1 naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) in osamnthus fragrans. • The optimal transient expression protocols with three tissues (calli, floral buds and leaves) varied in osamnthus fragrans. • The transient expression protocols we reported can be applied to numerous experiments on the identification of gene function in O. fragrans. As one of the 10 most famous flowers, sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans) is widely utilized in landscaping and food processing in China. Owing to the high complexity and large size of its genome, it is still an enormous challenge to develop transgenic technology for O. fragrans. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an efficient transient expression protocol for the rapid identification of gene functions in O. fragrans. In this study, we selected three different tissues of O. fragrans , including calli, floral buds, and leaves, as explants for transient transformation mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. However, we found that one protocol did not work for all tissues. Calli were induced and proliferated from the immature plumule of O. fragrans on one-half Murashige and Skoog media that contained 0.5 mg·L−1 6-benzylaminopurine and 1 mg·L−1 naphthalene acetic acid. GUS (β-glucuronidase) was used as a reporter gene, where its level of transcription reflected the abundance of Agrobacterium -mediated T-DNA transferred into explants. To obtain the optimal transient expression protocol for each explant, we evaluated the effects of Agrobacterium load, acetosyringone concentration, co-culture duration, bud bract removal, and explant preculture on the transformation efficiency. The use of our transient expression protocols to overexpress a transcriptional repressor of OfXTH14, OfMYB4 , in calli, floral buds, and leaves showed that the relative levels of expression of OfXTH14 decreased significantly in all three of our selected tissues. Since the transformed explants exhibited a transient high level of expression of the target gene, affecting the transcription of related genes as well as the synthesis of related metabolites, they can be widely applied to identify gene functions and study the molecular regulatory mechanisms of O. fragrans. Moreover, the critical steps to significantly increase the transformation efficiency varied from tissue to tissue, providing a reference for the development of transient expression protocols in other plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value of linking urban environment and subjective well-being (SWB) is now well recognized. But whether the geographical context inside and outside the neighborhood has differential influence on long- and short-term SWB remains unclear. Based on the activity perspective, we used survey data from Guangzhou, China, integrating GPS data, portable environmental sensors data to analyze time-weighted and real-time geographical context inside and outside the neighborhood on long- and short-term SWB. The results show that SWB is not only influenced by the neighborhood environment, but also the geographical context outside the neighborhood. Time-weighted geographical environment inside the neighborhood has a higher impact and explanatory ability on long-term SWB, while real-time geographical environment outside the neighborhood has a higher impact and explanatory ability on short-term SWB. This study provides a new understanding for geographies of SWB through the extension of time and space, and also provides reference for more refined urban planning and governance in the future., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest with respect to this research, authorship, and publication of this article., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The new development mode represented by the digital economy has provided new ideas for sustainable rural development. To comprehensively understand the status of digital rural development and propose scientific measures of rural revitalization in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), this study used counties as the research unit and data from 2020 to analyze the spatial differentiation characteristics and influencing factors by employing the Theil index, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and a geodetector model. The results showed that the digital rural development index in the YRB is slightly higher than it is in China overall, but the sub-index for the digital economy is lagging. The levels of digital rural development in the different reaches were lower reaches > middle reaches > upper reaches. Additionally, municipal districts and county-level cities have higher statuses than t general counties. Moreover, the decomposition of the Theil index shows that the intra-group differences in the upper reaches and general counties are the most important cause of the total differences. Moreover, the levels of digital rural development demonstrate spatial differences, with high and low levels in the east and west, respectively. An obvious reliable spatial correlation exists, and the spatial agglomeration featured with a similar level is significant. Finally, the influencing factors of spatial heterogeneity of digital rural development in the YRB and different reaches were different, with government expenditure being the main leading factor in the YRB and its upper reaches, while educational attainment and industrial structure are the leading factors in the middle reaches and lower reaches, respectively. The explanatory power of the interactions between the factors far exceeds that of a single factor, as shown through double-factor and nonlinear enhancement. This study provides a scientific reference for facilitating more targeted policy measures to achieving the goal of digital China and rural revitalization.

The notion of resilience has been increasingly adopted in economic geography, concerning how regions resist and recover from all kinds of shocks. Most of the literature on the resilience of coastal areas focuses on biophysical stressors, such as climate change and some environmental factors. In this research, we analyze the regional economic resilience characteristics responding to the Great Financial Crisis in 2008 and its main determinants. We conclude that the coastal areas encountered more recession (or less growth) in the long term, and the secondary industry showed higher resilience than the tertiary industry. The influential factors of regional economic resilience varied across different stages of the crisis, and for the long term, good financial arrangement and governance ability could prompt the regional resilience to the crisis. Finally, some policy implications are proposed which may benefit dealings with major shocks such as economic crises and COVID-19.

Research on environmental pollution and public health has aroused increasing concern from international scholars; particularly, environmental hazards are among the important issues in China, focusing public attention on significant health risks. However, there are few studies concentrated on how perceived environmental hazards are characterized by spatial variation and on the impact of these risks on residents' health. Based on a large-scale survey of Zhengzhou City in 2020, we investigated how the self-rated health of residents and the environmental hazards perceived by them were spatially inequal at a fine (subdistrict) scale in Zhengzhou City, China, and examined the relationship among self-rated health, environmental hazards, and geographical context. The Getis-Ord Gi* method was applied to explore the spatially dependent contextual (neighborhood) effect on environmental health inequality, and the ordered multivariate logistic regression method was used to examine the correlative factors with environmental hazards, geographical context, and health inequality. The results reveal that self-rated health and environmental hazards were disproportionately distributed across the whole city and that these distributions showed certain spatial cluster characteristics. The hot spot clusters of self-rated health had favorable environmental quality where the hot spot clusters of environmental hazards were located and vice versa. In addition, health inequality was evident and was related to gender, income level, educational attainment, and housing area of residents, and the inequalities of environmental hazards existed with respect to income and housing area. Meanwhile, environmental risk inequalities associated with the social vulnerability of residents (the poor and those with low educational attainment) were obvious, with those residents experiencing a disproportionately high exposure to environmental hazards and reporting bad health conditions. The role of the geographical context (subdistrict location feature) also helps to explain the spatial distribution of health and environmental inequalities. Residents with better exposure to green coverage generally reported higher levels of self-rated health condition. In addition, the geographical location of the subdistrict also had a significant impact on the difference in residents' self-rated health status. The purpose of this study is to provide reference for policy makers to optimize the spatial pattern of urban public services and improve public health and environmental quality at a fine scale.

Objective: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a relentlessly progressing form of chronic kidney disease for which there is no cure. The aim of this study was to characterize Chinese patients with ADPKD and to identify the factors which predict cyst growth and renal functional deterioration., Methods: To analyze disease predicting factors we performed a prospective longitudinal observational study in a cohort of 541 Chinese patients with ADPKD and an eGFR ≥ 30 ml/min/1.73 m(2). Patients were followed clinically and radiologically with sequential abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Clinical characteristics and laboratory data were related to changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and total kidney volume (TKV). A linear regression model was developed to analyze the factors which determine eGFR and TKV changes., Results: The age range of this unselected cohort ranged from 4 to 77 years. Median follow-up time was 14.3 ± 10.6 months. Although inter-individual differences in eGFR and TKV were large, there was a consistent link between these two parameters. Baseline log10-transformed TKV and urinary protein/creatinine ratio were identified as the major predictors for a faster eGFR decline and were associated with a higher TKV growth rate. Interestingly, a lower thrombocyte count correlated significantly with lower eGFR (r = 0.222) and higher TKV (r = 0.134)., Conclusions: This large cohort of Chinese patients with ADPKD provides unique epidemiological data for comparison with other cohorts of different ethnicity. In Chinese patients we identified a lower thrombocyte count as a significant predictor of disease progression. These results are important for the design of future clinical trials to retard polycystic kidney disease progression.

A small-scale local chikungunya outbreak occurred in a Guangdong village of southern China in October 2010. The five chikungunya viruses (CHIKV) isolated from the epidemic and three other imported cases obtained from the same period were sequenced and analyzed for phylogenesis. The results demonstrated that all of the eight sequences were clustered in the Eastern, Central, Southern, and African group. However, the local strains and imported isolates showed different sequence variations. A226V in E1 gene and V264A in E2 gene were detected in all three imported isolates, the unique substitutions S250P in E1 gene and H313Y in E2 genes could be observed in four of the five local strains. These significant variations might be some of the causes for the outbreak. It would be an important event for CHIKV to have mutated adaption to the local mosquitoes in China, Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti.

Osmanthus fragrans Lour., an evergreen small tree, has the rare sexual system of androdioecy (coexistence of males and hermaphrodites), once with wide-spread natural distribution in the areas of the South Yangzi river basin. However, due to excessive human utilization, natural distribution became fragmented and the number and size of natural populations reduced sharply. With four different types of natural populations from the same region as research object, we aim to provide a comparative analysis on the relationships among genetic diversity, sexual system, population structure and size, and geographic isolation by ISSR. In genetic parameters of N e , H e , and I, the LQGC population had the highest value and the LQZGQ population had the lowest value. These indicated that LQGC population showed the highest genetic diversity, followed by QDH and JN population, and LQZGQ population exhibited the lowest genetic diversity. Genetic diversity in populations is closely related to population structure, reproduction mode, and sex ratio. However, there seems to be no obvious correlation between genetic diversity and population size. The results of AMOVA showed that genetic variations mostly occurred within populations. It indicates that no significant genetic differentiation among populations occurs, and geographic isolation has no significant effect on genetic diversity.

Opisthopappus Shih is endemic to the Taihang Mountains, China. It grows in the crevice of cliffs and is in fragmented distribution. This genus consists of two species, namely, O. taihangensis (Ling) Shih and O. longilobus Shih, which are both endangered plants in China. This study adopted intersimple sequence repeat markers (ISSR) to analyze the genetic diversity and genetic structure from different levels (genus, species, and population) in this genus. A total of 253 loci were obtained from 27 primers, 230 of which were polymorphic loci with a proportion of polymorphic bands (PPB) of up to 90.91% at genus level. At species level, both O. taihangensis (PPB = 90.12%, H = 0.1842, and I = 0.289) and O. longilobus (PPB = 95.21%, H = 0.2226, and I = 0.3542) have high genetic diversity. Their respective genetic variation mostly existed within the population. And genetic variation in O. longilobus (84.95%) was higher than that in O. taihangensis (80.45%). A certain genetic differentiation among populations in O. taihangensis was found (G(st) = 0.2740, Φ(st) = 0.196) and genetic differentiation in O. longilobus was very small (G(st) = 0.1034, Φ(st) = 0.151). Gene flow in different degrees (N(m) = 1.325 and 4.336, resp.) and mating system can form the existing genetic structures of these two species. Furthermore, genetic differentiation coefficient (G(st) = 0.0453) between species and the clustering result based on the genetic distance showed that interspecific differentiation between O. taihangensis and O. longilobus was not significant and could occur lately.